Mask mandates could be making a return as new COVID-19 variants spread.
The World Health Organization is suggesting that countries consider implementing mask mandates, particularly on long-haul flights. The news comes as XBB.1.5, a subvariant of the omicron strain of COVID-19, spreads in small pockets across Europe.
"This should be a recommendation issued to passengers arriving from anywhere where there is widespread COVID-19 transmission," Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer at the World Health Organization, told CBC News.
The new omicron subvariant, which was first detected in October 2022, is said to be the most transmissible and has accounted for at least 27 percent of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
As both COVID-19 and flu cases rise in the United States, more schools across the country are implementing their own mask mandates. Districts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Michigan have begun telling students to mask up and the trend is growing.
"When it comes to individual decisions, masks are among the most low-cost and most effective steps that can be taken to broadly reduce transmission of a multitude of viruses," Emily Toth Martin and Marisa Eisenberg, University of Michigan epidemiologists, wrote in an op-ed.
The CDC is currently reviewing its mask guidance.
